2018 FINA World Cup Kazan Day 3: Chupkov Rips 2:07.59 2Breast

2018 FINA WORLD CUP SERIES – KAZAN

• Friday, September 7th – Sunday, September 9th
• Aquatics Palace, Kazan, Russia
• LCM
• SwimSwam Meet Preview
• Day 1 Prelims Recap/Day 1 Finals Recap
• Day 2 Prelims Recap/Day 2 Finals Recap
• Day 3 Prelims Recap
• Entries List
• Results

Russia’s Anton Chupkov blasted a new World Cup Record in the men’s 200m breaststroke tonight in front of his home country, producing a big-time 2:07.59 for the gold in Kazan.

Splitting 1:03.11/1:04.48, Chupkov managed to dismantle the previous WC Reocrd of 2:08.77 set by Germany’s Marco Koch in Moscow back in 2015. In that race, Koch split 1:02.67/1:06.10, while Chupkov’s split differential was reduced to just 1.37 seconds between opening and closing 100’s.

Finishing behind Chupkov tonight were a pair of countryman in Russia’s Kirill Prigoda and Mikhail Dorinov. They finished with the silver and bronze in 2:09.75 and 2:09.86, respectively.

Chupkov, the 21-year-old bronze medalist from Rio, already turned heads this year with a monster gold medal at the 2018 European Championships in Glasgow. The Russian took the European title in a winning time of 2:06.80, laying waste to the previous European Record and Russian National Record of 2:06.96 Chupkov owned from his performance at last year’s World Championships where he also stood atop the podium.

His time in Glasgow checked in as the 2nd fastest performance ever, only behind world record holder Ippei Watanabe of Japan’s 2:06.67. Chupkov’s 2:07.59 time tonight knocks Japan’s Yasuhiro Koseki’s 2:07.81 from this year’s Asian Games out of the top 25 times in history, taking the last spot in the list.